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During the winter, while I was confined to a small apartment in the company of some books, I made the mistake of reading a rather disturbing and depressing book:is “Disgrace” by J.M. Coetzee, a South African writer, Nobel laureate and Booker Prize winner who, as I later learned, is known for a quite impressive oeuvre of depressing books. This article contains spoilers.
Illustration by Megan Liao.
At 108 years old, Carl Shapiro H’03 passed away on March 7. Serving various roles at Brandeis, including benefactor, member of the Board of Trustees and recipient of an honorary degree, Shapiro contributed to the University for over 70 years. “We are grateful for and inspired by the legacy Mr. Shapiro and his family have built here at Brandeis,” President Ron Liebowitz wrote in a March 9 email to the Brandeis community.
Illustration by Megan Liao
Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is a two-week celebration of the first new moon of the year in the traditional lunar calendar of many East Asian countries. Members of the Asian American community at Brandeis usually hold celebrations for the holiday, but due to COVID-19 they have had to alter their typical events.
Dr. Carol Fierke Ph.D. ’84 has been named the next Provost of Brandeis University, according to a Nov. 30 email from University President Ron Liebowitz. Fierke, who began as provost at the start of 2021, succeeded Lisa Lynch, who announced her intention to step down from being provost at the end of the spring 2020 semester. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lynch remained provost for an extra semester — fall 2020 — before taking a position as the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
Student Art Spotlight by Megan Liao.
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the 2020-2021 academic year for college students. This semester, however, students in the Boston area have to contend with the winter weather's impact on mental health and well-being during the pandemic.
Student Art Spotlight by Megan Liao.
The University held its 15th annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial event over Zoom on Monday, Jan. 18. Twenty-five women spoke at the event, which was themed, “As She Is Queen and King.”
The start of the new semester brought a new round of Student Union elections. On Jan. 25, students voted for five Union Senate seats, four Allocations Board seats and one junior representative seat to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
Student Art Spotlight: illustration by Megan Liao
In light of the Nov. 10 release of the University’s Draft Anti-Racism Plan, the Justice’s editorial board will be reviewing and providing feedback on each section of the plan. We hope that these forthcoming editorials will serve as a resource for students to provide feedback to the administration. We also recognize, however, that our editorial board is predominantly white, and we will work to ensure that we are not taking space or attention away from the voices of the BIPOC students who are most directly affected by racism on campus. In line with this goal, we have grounded our analysis of the appendices in the demands put forward in the Black Action Plan.
The artists’ community at Brandeis has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the art studios adapting their practices according to the required safety measures, the fall 2020 semester has proven to be a challenge for the arts community on campus.
Although so much is closed or virtual this semester, Brandeis students will be happy to learn that one campus institution is still open in-person: the Rose Art Museum. It offers, as Prof. Gannit Ankori (FA) described it in a Nov. 1 email to the Justice, “a quiet space for reflection, contemplation, and enjoyment” that could be a good mental break from the chaos of 2020 for students, staff and faculty alike. She is an active member of the Rose's Advisory Board, and I recently had the chance to correspond with her about the museum’s current programs and upcoming developments.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
Last Thursday, the Brandeis Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research invited Sato Moughalian, a renowned flutist and the author of "Feast of Ashes — The Life and Art of David Ohannessian,” for a virtual lecture on David Ohannessian, a well-known Armenian ceramicist. Moughalian is Ohannessian’s granddaughter, and she spoke about his art and how his experience in the Armenian genocide and being deported influenced his interpretation of ceramics. The event was supposed to happen last spring in person, but because of the pandemic it was rescheduled for this fall.
Spring study abroad
It’s a sunny Wednesday morning and you have two classes before 1 p.m. and a class at 2:30 p.m., enough time to squeeze in lunch with your friends. You foresee the microwavable mac and cheese from your freezer being your dinner for tonight, while you attend your Zoom lecture with your camera turned off. You got the “DO NOT REPLY You have received a Package” email this morning — you're expecting your Amazon package today — some clothes that you saw on a TikTok and your favorite chocolate that you can’t find at the Hoot Market. You figure, you can pick up your package in between class and lunchtime, stuff it in your backpack, and open it when you get back to your dorm. You head to the Usdan Student Center, stand in a short line, swipe your ID card and wait. You see the mailroom workers look at some computer, call out a number, disappear for two seconds, and come back with your package in hand. You say “thank you,” and just like that you go up the stairs and get on with the rest of your day. This is the level of interaction that many Brandeis students have with the mailroom. But what goes on behind the curtains of the Brandeis mailroom? What stories do the workers behind the plexiglass have to tell?
With the 2020 presidential election exactly a week away, tension is mounting, and voters are flooding to the polls. As this board wrote last week, it is incredibly important that Brandeis students vote up and down the ballot this election cycle. We now turn to professors and ask that they accommodate students on and around Election Day to ensure that everyone who is eligible can vote without it interfering with their academics.